The sermon 'The Love of God on Display' by Jason Dohm explores Romans 5:6-11, focusing on the profound love of God demonstrated through Christ's sacrificial death for sinners. It highlights the human predicament of sin, emphasizing that God's love is not based on human worthiness but is rooted in His own nature. The sermon discusses the role of the Holy Spirit in pouring God's love into believers' hearts, and the unique nature of God's love as active and sacrificial, rather than merely emotional. It explains that Christ's death was planned before the world's creation, underscoring God's intentional and unwavering love. The sermon also contrasts God's love with human love, which is often conditional and based on someone's perceived goodness. Through Jesus' death and resurrection, believers are reconciled to God, justified, and saved from future wrath. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to rejoice in God, emphasizing the importance of communion with Him as the ultimate satisfaction for the soul.

The verses that Jason's going to go through is 6 and 11. We're going to start in verse 1 for context, but I want to read something from Isaiah for more context. Isaiah 53 verse 4, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we're healed. In order to fully appreciate What it means for Christ to show this unique love, we have to understand the uniqueness of our, the problem that we were in, this immense predicament that our sin had brought. Job says we drink sin and iniquity like water.

Our nature is so hellbound and that we found a light in crucifying the very one who came to die for us. So I pray that as we listen to this, that this transforms us. If this, I was thinking to myself, if this verse does not just wrench our souls with the kind of love that God has for us, then nothing will. This is it. I'm tempted to stay up here and talk the whole time but Jason will probably tackle me in such a beautiful verse.

So maybe someday. Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love towards us and that while we were still sinners Christ died for us Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we are reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we now receive the reconciliation. Father, we can't even find the words to thank you and praise you for all the implications of this.

Lord, to us it's just words, but to you it was demonstration through action, leaving the glory of heaven, coming here in such humble fashion, living a life among sinners, facing temptation, and then dying on a cross, the utmost suffering, becoming sin, enduring the wrath of God. Holy Spirit, please, if there's ever been a time you've been active in our hearts to wake us up to a message, to impact us with a message, may it be today. May your love absolutely consume us. Leave nothing untouched in our hearts, please. And for those unsaved, Lord, may today be the day of salvation please God awaken dead hearts with this truth these dead eyes see this immense love or and would you receive such glory from our lives moving forward in Christ's name, amen.

The title of this sermon this morning is The Love of God on Display. Would it be okay if we take the better part of an hour to consider the love of God for sinners? That works for me. I hope that works for you. Let's ask God to bless our time.

God, when we think through these things rationally, think of who we are, our great need, who you are, and all your perfections. And all your perfections. Your love really is a marvel. I hated about myself that the marvel of your love sometimes loses its luster in the routine of life or the busyness of life. I pray that you would give us the ability to shake all that off today.

We would have the love of God set before us with all its luster. As if we were seeing it for the very first time again. Pray in Jesus' name, Amen. We'll be subdividing this morning, and so I'd like to start by re-reading verse 6. So again, we're in Romans chapter 5, and verse 6 is the first verse in the section.

So let me start by rereading this verse and then I haven't given an introduction to the sermon, a proper introduction, but it starts with a connecting word, so I'll connect this backwards. We'll get the introduction, don't worry. Romans chapter 5 verse 6, please follow along as I reread it. I reread it. Paul writes, for when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

This is about the death, the sacrificial death, the substitutionary death, meaning the innocent dying in place of the guilty, this death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in this verse, verse 6, Paul is teaching that Christ died for the ungodly when we were powerless. So if you're taking notes on the handout and you're filling in blanks, ungodly fills in the first blank, powerless fills in the second. Christ died for the ungodly when we were powerless. I say we because the first three chapters of the book of Romans has been given to convince you that the ungodly isn't someone else out there who you're ashamed of, that it's you.

That we are the ungodly, that we all stand condemned, and it's not an unrighteous condemnation. It is actually God being good and right to take this standard and to apply it to me and even though I've outwardly been very acceptable to most people, I just happen to be a little more sophisticated in my sin and rebellion. It doesn't make me less sinful or less rebellious. It makes me less outwardly sinful and rebellious. But with a heart that still is in tremendous need of the grace of God.

So let's just dispense with the pronouns that shifts it to someone else. Him, her, they, you know, the bad people. Romans chapters 1, 2, and 3 were given over to convince us that we are those people who are in desperate need of the grace of God. Christ died for the ungodly when we, the ungodly ones, were powerless. Our text starts with a connecting word, verse 6, 4.

So we need to notice what we're connecting to. We're connecting back to verse 5. The love of God has been poured out in the hearts of believers by the Holy Spirit. So, the Holy Spirit has a job in dwelling the believers. One of those missions of the Holy Spirit is to pour out the love of God into our hearts to make us aware to feel this love of God.

And now Paul goes on to teach us about the nature and extent of this love of God. So he's just said The Holy Spirit has been given to believers to pour out His love into their hearts so they would know the love of God for them. Now He is teaching us about His love. What's the nature of it? What's the extent of it?

We're looking at verse 6 now, but verse 8 is really the centerpiece in what this section is about. God demonstrates His love toward us. So that's what this whole text is about. Is God demonstrating or displaying or showing or making known the love that He has in His heart toward us. Us being those who have gone to Jesus Christ for mercy.

So what kind of love is it and who are these people who receive it? Paul is answering those questions. It's a sentimental love. It's only syrupy sweet emotion and it is for the lovable, it is for the lovely. No, no, no.

All wrong. All wrong. The love of God is for the ungodly, not for the lovable and the lovely. And the love of God is love in action. Not just syrupy sweet emotion that's felt, but you can't find any tangible example of it.

We look at the cross of Christ, Jesus Christ, laying down His life, bleeding and dying for sinners, and we say there is the love of God. It's not just a sentiment that is invisible, it is in action, living, dying, bleeding for sinners. It does involve sentiment. The love of God involves emotion. It is the expression of his heart.

So it's not without sentiment. When I say, Syrupy sweet emotion, I cast that in a negative light. But I'm not saying there isn't emotion. No, no, no. It is the expression of the feeling of God for sinners.

But the feeling doesn't stop at feeling. That's the point here. The feeling doesn't stop at feeling. The feeling extends to the cross, the work of the cross, the living and the dying and the bleeding for sinners that Jesus has done. It moves God to a compassion that sends his beloved Son to die for the ungodly.

So it isn't just sentimental love, and it isn't for the lovable and the lovely. It's for people who are the opposite of who God is. He is God, they are the ungodly. So it's not for people who are like him, lovely like him, an object worthy of all our love like him, it's for the people who are the opposite of that. He is God, we are the ungodly, Nothing like Him.

We were made to be like Him. We were made to be holy as He is holy. We were made to bear and to reflect his image, but we've done the exact opposite of that. How do we know we've done the opposite of what it would mean to bear and to reflect his image. It would mean that in our unbelieving state, no one can look at us and say, look at what our Creator is like.

Said no one ever to us in our unbelieving state. Oh, look at what the God who made all this is like. No, no, no. We were meant to bear and reflect His image, but we've not done that. We've done the opposite of that.

We have been the ungodly. UnChrist-like. And when did this great act of love, Christ dying for the ungodly, happen? When we finally got our act together. No.

When we were powerless, completely powerless, when we were without strength, He did not wait for us to get our act together. He would have waited for eternity. He did not respond to something, some glimmer of a change of heart. Oh, I see the glimmer of a change of heart. Now I'll die for them." He did not wait for that.

He did not respond to that. There was none of that to wait for. There was none of that to wait for, there was none of that to respond to. The text says, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. God did the opposite of waiting.

He planned. He didn't wait for a good sign to die for the ungodly. He planned for the salvation of sinners. He planned to love the ungodly through the death of his beloved son, before the world was ever created. He had every intention, he had a firm, fixed plan, to love the ungodly, not just sentimentally, but in a way that you can see by sending his son to die on the cross.

And he determined to do that before he made the world. Jesus is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That's the words of Revelation 13 verse 8. Jesus is the lamb, the sacrifice, slain from the foundation of the world. He was as good as dead for sinners when the world was made.

Do you believe that? That's what the Bible teaches. Jesus was delivered to death by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. That's Acts 2.23. He was delivered, given over to death by random circumstances, by evil men, actually he was delivered by his father to death, by his father's determined purpose, Determining what he would do beforehand, purposing, planning what he would do beforehand, knowing what he had made up his mind to accomplish.

So this means that his love is rooted in his own nature and not in anything in us. How could it be anything in me if he determined to do it before he made the world? So it has to be just rooted in himself. God is love. Where does this love come from?

Something in me that drew out his love? No. It's something in him. It's rooted in him and only in him. For a God who knows everything about me, it has to be in him or it won't be at all.

He knows too much. He knows too much about Jason Dome and James Lundquist and Josh Johnson and Sarah Lundquist and Rebecca Dome. He knows too much To have the expression of His love be a reaction to something lovely in me, something lovable in me. You must realize that the phrase, in due time, in due time, means that God always had in his mind the exact moment that his son would die for the ungodly. Otherwise, what does in due time mean?

Meaning, in the appointed time Jesus died. He had in his mind the exact moment in human history that Jesus would bleed and die for sinners on the cross. So he makes the world, but this is already in his mind, the exact moment that Jesus would die on the cross. In due time. Listen to what Paul writes, so same author, Paul writes to the Galatians in Galatians 4, 4 and 5.

Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5. Paul writes to them, but when the fullness of time had come, so up until that time, it's not time, it's not time, it's not time, The time is not filled up, but then the fullness of time came. It's time. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. He knew the moment when the time would be perfect for his son to come into the world, to live a perfect life so that he wouldn't have any of his own sins to die for, so that he could stand as a substitute and be the innocent one who would offer himself up for the guilty.

Again, the guilty can't die for the guilty, I can't die for you. What good would that be? Me coming with my own sins. Jesus came with none of his own sins to offer himself as an acceptable sacrifice to God in the place of sinners like me. He died for the ungodly.

He died for the powerless. People who were totally without strength. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 5 says, we were dead in trespasses. How much power does a dead man have, a dead woman have, to save himself, to save herself? Ephesians 2.5 says, we were dead in trespasses, powerless, totally without strength.

Totally without strength. 1 Corinthians 2.14 says, the natural man, a human, in our natural state, The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness to him. You preach the Gospel, you preach good news, glad tidings, to someone in their natural state all day long, and they don't receive them because it's just foolishness to them. They're true. They're true things.

They're things of the Spirit of God, but they don't receive them because it just sounds like foolishness. Meanwhile there is someone sitting right next to them hearing exactly the same words and the Spirit of God is present to convince them these things are true, this is the Word of God. That verse ends this way, Nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. You're preaching to spiritual dead men and only God can fix that. Only God can change that.

There's no preacher good enough. There's no preacher good enough to preach a single person into the kingdom of God. God has to be there with power to make a person spiritually alive. And then they have eyes to see and ears to hear The things they couldn't see or hear a week earlier, a day earlier, a minute earlier. Before we move on, two helpful quotes.

At least I thought they were helpful. The first is from a note from the MacArthur Study Bible. The MacArthur Study Bible has this note. God's love for His own is unwavering, because it is not based on how lovable we are, but on the constancy of his own character. Amen and praise God.

Because His love is not rooted in something in me, but rooted in His own nature, that makes me say Amen and praise God. Because it means, if that thing in me that attracted His love changes, then what will I do? Then what will you do? But if it's rooted in Him, you know that He doesn't change. From eternity past through eternity future, he will never change.

He can only be as he is in all his perfections. This is what the Bible teaches about God. And so you can know his love won't waver because God doesn't waver, and his love just extends from himself and what he's like. Here's what Matthew Henry says, He died for the ungodly, not only helpless creatures and therefore likely to perish, but guilty sinful creatures and therefore deserving to perish." So you think, oh, there's these powerless people, poor, powerless people. They're likely to perish.

They have no power. No, no, no. It's way worse than that. It's right that they would perish. Rebels against God, their maker, living in rebellion against a good God who is their maker, but they will not be governed by him, they deserve to perish.

They're not just the innocent powerless, they're the rebel. Not just helpless and therefore likely to perish, but guilty and therefore deserving to perish. That's who Jesus died for. Verses seven and eight to our next subsection. I've got to work on my transitions.

That feels very abrupt. Does that feel very abrupt to you? Oh well. Back to Romans 5 verses 7 and 8. Paul writes, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die.

Yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us, toward us, in that While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Here Paul says before us that God's love is very different from our love. Very different from our love. If you're filling in blanks, different fills in the blank.

God's love is very different from our love. The interpretive challenge in these two verses is the righteous man, the good man. Why is that an interpretive challenge? What's the potential problem with that? Because the Bible doesn't know anything about a righteous man.

The Bible doesn't know anything about a good man. Turn back to chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. Remember he was stacking up Old Testament quotations in chapter 3, trying to convince us that what the Bible teaches is that when an almighty God who can see every motivation, every thought, know every word that's whispered in a single ear, He knows all that's done and then he compares it to this perfectly good standard that all have so, so many sins against this God. And he sees them all.

He's laboring to convince us of that. Then we see this in Romans 3 verses 10-12. Romans 3, 10-12 is just quotes of Old Testament. As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. So now we come to our text, he's talking about a righteous man, where you find a righteous man.

In chapter 3 he just said there's not one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks after God, they have all turned aside, they have together become unprofitable there is none who does good no not one so chapter 3 is quoting either Psalm 14 or Psalm 53 they both start with almost exactly the same words. He could be quoting either Psalm, you don't really know which one it is, but he's quoting one of those Psalms, and it says, There's no one righteous, there's no one good. Now in chapter 5, we hit this where he's talking about someone might die for a righteous man, they might die for a good man, where do you find these good people that chapter three said didn't even exist? It really isn't a significant problem because The point Paul is making here in chapter 5 simply depends on the opinion of the person considering making the sacrifice of his life.

Meaning, you have someone considering, will I sacrifice my life for another? And All that's in view is their estimation of the person that they're considering laying down their life for. That's the whole point here. That's all that matters if I'm considering laying down my life for this one is How do I value this person and how do I value my own life is this person good enough? Maybe Maybe not good in an all-knowing God's sight.

Maybe not righteous in an all-knowing God's opinion. But in my opinion, I'm considering laying down my life for that person. Is that person good enough for me to give up my life which is very precious to me. In the human context, only very, very rarely is anyone's answer to that question, yes. In the human context, only very, very, very, very, very, very rarely is anyone's answer to the question, Is that person good enough for me to lay down my life, which is so precious to me, for them?

That answer is almost always no. And in the human context, no one is throwing their life away for someone who is bad. If I think you're very, very, very, very, very, very good from all I know, that's my opinion, maybe I would lay down my life for you. But if my opinion is you're very bad, I never would. My life is much too precious to me for that.

That's the whole point here. Look at verse 7. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. You would only have the courage to die for someone if your opinion was that they're very, very, very, very good, so that my very precious life would be worth it. That brings us to God and His love.

His very different love. His very different love. Look at verse 8, but God demonstrates His own love toward us. In that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That's a very different kind of love than what's just been described, indeed.

Christ died for me not when he thought that I was good, but when he knew that I was bad and he had all the data. He knows every motivation for every thought I've thought, every word I've spoken, every action I've taken. He knows everything about every one of them, so he's not missing information. Information and he knows exactly what I am and that's when he went to the cross. He even knew how often I would misuse him having gone to the cross.

What do I mean by that? Do Christians still sin? Are Christians still stubborn? Do they persist in habits to dishonor God? Yes, yes, yes!

He knew all that and he went to the cross. Amazing. Jesus Christ died for me not when he thought that I was good, but that he knew with all the information exactly what I was, how bad I was. What did Jonathan Edwards say? The only thing you contribute to your salvation is the sin that made it necessary.

Thank you for your contribution. You have contributed to your salvation. Your rebellion against God made Jesus' coming essential if you would be saved. You have contributed your sin, making the work of the cross necessary. That is the only way that you can be saved, is the blood of the Son of God.

It was when I was ungodly and powerless to help myself that Jesus went to the cross. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, this is Paul's exposition of John 3.16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John says, you remember the most famous verse in the Bible? This is the explanation of that verse.

That God's love for the world was so great that He would send His Son from heaven so that the perishing could live. This is the love of God on display. You want the love of God to be tangible? Oh, it's tangible. I don't want His love to be invisible.

How would I know it's real? Look to the cross. It is the love of God on display. We can go back further in time. Further in scripture to Isaiah 53, hundreds of years before Jesus was born.

Isaiah foretold about a suffering servant, one who would stand in the place of sinners, give his life for sinners. Here's what we read in Isaiah 53-10. Yet it pleased the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed.

As a believer in Jesus Christ I want to say I'm his seed. God the Father made Jesus who is God the Son an offering for sin. And because I've thrown myself on Jesus for His mercy, I'm His offspring. I derive my life from His life. I can live because he came and died for sinners like me.

This is the love of God on display. This is the love of a father who would send a beloved son. This is the love of a son who would willingly come. Jesus said, no one takes my life from me. I willingly lay it down.

I willingly take it up again. This is a very different kind of love than human love. Verses 9 and 10. Romans 5 verses 9 and 10. This is a very different kind of love than human love.

Verses 9 and 10. Romans 5 verses 9 and 10. Paul continues, Much more than, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled we shall be saved by his life." In these two verses we have the necessary conclusion of Jesus' death and life. If you're filling in blanks, conclusion fills in the first blank, life fills in the second.

The necessary conclusion of Jesus' death and life. Now don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. I'm not saying that his death and life has concluded so there's nothing that follows after it. I'm saying there's a logical conclusion that must be drawn from Jesus dying and Jesus rising. That's the conclusion that I'm talking about.

Not the end point of it, but something that must necessarily be true. You must conclude that this is so because Jesus died and rose again. Paul here makes an argument from the lesser to the greater saying, if the lesser is true, How much greater must this be true? And the chain of thought runs through both verses, through 9 and 10. Verse 9, for those who have been justified, for Those who have been declared innocent, the judge has said, you are innocent, you are not guilty, or you have been declared righteous because of Jesus' blood.

How much more will they be saved from God's wrath through Jesus? Now you have to ask why is this wrath being spoken of future wrath? We shall be future, saved from wrath. Aren't believers saved from God's wrath in the present? Paul is speaking of something very specific.

Matthew chapter 3 verse 7, John the Baptist is thundering against Sadducees and Pharisees who have the wrong view of what it means to be in a right relationship with God. And John the Baptist says, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Who warned you to flee from the future wrath? What's John the Baptist talking about as he preaches there? As he thunders against the Sadducees and the Pharisees.

He's talking about God's anger against the unrepentant which will be poured out at the final judgment. It's being stored up until the final judgment. But the day is coming when Jesus will return and the time to repent is past and all that stored up anger against the sin of mankind will be poured out on people who would not repent. That is the future wrath. So Paul's point is this.

That this declaration of justification, this declaration that you are not guilty, you are innocent, you are righteous because of Jesus' life and death will hold, will stick, until the day of days when time is up and the wrath, God's anger against rebellion that has been stored up from human history is poured out on the unrepentant. His point is not that believers are subject to wrath now, but that this peace with God will hold until the very end. It's actually even better than saying, believers, God's anger against you today has been quenched by what Jesus did. He's actually saying something a lot more precious than that. He's saying it's been quenched forever.

On the day when all the stored up wrath is poured out, there will be nothing for you in that day. His declaration that you're not guilty will be the declaration then. You'll make it till then. You'll be innocent then as well as now. His work is going to hold in your life.

His work is going to stick in your life. Verse 10 gives the reasoning why that must be true. In other words, if you believe nine you have to believe ten. It Must be true. Here's the reason.

If God took his enemies and made them his friends through the death of his son, How much more will he do for those who are now his friends through the life of his son? You understand what the argument is here? If God sent his son to die and in his son dying, he took you from an enemy and made you his friend. Now that Jesus is alive and you're his friend, what can you expect? What do you have a right to expect?

Now that you're his friend. Now that he's alive. Notice this, the order is important. It isn't the life and death of Jesus. That's normally what we think of.

We think of the incarnation. He was in heaven, He came, He took on flesh to live a human life. Life? And then he died on the cross. It's the life and death of Jesus, but that's not what Paul says here.

He says the death and life. So Paul's thoughts are starting at the cross. And his standing as a substitute and dying in the place of people who would trust in him. And then his life, meaning he didn't stay dead, he was raised from the dead, and he lives forevermore. His death and his life, his resurrected life.

Listen to Hebrews 7 verses 24 and 25. Hebrews chapter 7, 24 and 25. But He, the resurrected Jesus, but He, because He continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Because he was raised to life and he is going to live forever, his priesthood is unchangeable, it's eternal. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

So where is Jesus? He is at the right hand of God, sitting in the place of honor next to His Father, and what is he doing? Nothing. No, he's doing something. He's pleading for his people.

He's interceding for his people. He's taking up the cause of his people with his father So that they have fresh supplies of all that they need every day. His mercies are new every morning. Jesus' advocacy for believers is happening right now as we meet. Jesus' advocacy for believers, Him taking up the cause of His people, is going to happen forever.

If reconciling you to his father is what he can do through his death, think what he will do for you now that you are his father's friend through his life. That's the point of what Paul is teaching here. Paul says this in Philippians 1 verse 6. Philippians chapter 1 verse 6, being confident of this very thing That he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ Don't fear believers Don't fear The one who begins a work in you if you really did begin that work He will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. Until the day that Jesus comes back, He'll see that work through.

This is such a precious truth. And it's based on all of what Paul was teaching in Romans chapter 5. Listen to Jude 24. There's only one chapter in Jude so you don't even say chapter in verses, just verse because there's only verses. Jude 24.

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." This is Paul's argument. This is Paul's whole argument here. God is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless because of what Jesus has done and what Jesus is doing, still doing, sitting at His Father's right hand pleading the cause of His people. Getting fresh supplies of grace for them every day for His people. He is able to do that, believer.

He is doing that, believer. Our final verse, verse 11. Romans 5 verse 11, and not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. There's more. The verse begins, and not only that, as if that wasn't good enough, what?

Believers get more than just the gifts, believers get the giver himself. That's what's here in verse 11. What Old Testament verse has Paul just been quoting over and over and over again? Genesis 15 verse 6, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. He's just been in the lead up to this, he's been quoting this over and over again, Genesis 15-6, to teach, to prove that justification, this declaration by God that you're not guilty, that you're innocent, that you're righteous, is like it is with Abraham.

He believed God and it was accounted to him, it was credited to him or reckoned to him as righteousness. Faith, salvation, by grace alone through faith alone. Do you know how that passage begins? Genesis 15. Paul keeps quoting verse 6.

Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. You know how that passage begins? Listen. Genesis 15.1. Here's where God shows up and starts speaking to Abraham.

Here's what he says. Genesis 15.1. After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not be afraid, Abram, am your shield and your exceedingly great reward. God says this to the believer. I'm giving you a treasure.

What is it Lord? It's me! Now listen, the Bible teaches that it is God Himself who satisfies the human soul. So thank God for union with Jesus Christ by faith, for being joined with the Son of God by faith, through which come justification and being saved from God's wrath. God's fury against me is good and right, but dealt with by Jesus' work on the cross.

So, union with Christ brings these things to me. Thank God for that. But those are the gifts. It is the giver himself who can satisfy my soul. You've listened to enough of my sermons to know that I have a couple of bits for this.

I can just launch into the bit. What are they? Boots on, boots off, and J.C. Ryle's thoughts on union and communion. Boots on.

Dressed for work. Dressed for war. Kingdom work. Kingdom war. Is there a time for that in the Christian life?

You better believe it. Boots on for kingdom work and boots on for kingdom war. Yes, there's a place for that. You better have time or you take your boots off. You get a cup of coffee and you just draw near to God for the purpose of being with Him.

Of being with Him! Why? Because He's given you a treasure. What is it? It's me, says God.

Having the boots off satisfies the soul. J.C. Ryle talks about union and communion. He says all believers have union with Christ. If you're a real believer in Christ, you are joined to Him.

And it's an all or nothing proposition. You can never have more union with Him or less union with Him. You either have it or you don't. Communion is not like that. Communion you can have a lot or a little.

Your comfort in this life, your joy in this life, your satisfaction in this life, depends on having more. You have more when you have communion with Him. It doesn't make you more of a believer. It doesn't make you more born again. It doesn't make you more saved, but it satisfies your soul.

Draw near Him. Christians can go through. Christians do go through long stretches. They're still joined to Christ by faith, but they have very little communion with Him. Those are sad times in the life of a believer.

If you're not carving out time to be alone with God, Start carving out time to be alone with God. It will satisfy your soul. He is your shield and your exceedingly great reward. Do you feel dry? Maybe this is why you feel dry.

Do you feel unsatisfied? This is probably why. I'm speaking to Christians, and to Christians I'm not saying become a Christian you are Christian. I'm saying enjoy your privileges. Why wouldn't you enjoy your privileges?

Especially if they are blood bought privileges. Especially if they are soul satisfying privileges. What are you thinking? Same thing I'm thinking. Let me say this.

Having been reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus Christ, don't settle for less than rejoicing in God. He is your shield and your exceedingly great reward. You want to leave your exceedingly great reward unclaimed? Applications. I don't even have one for unbelievers today.

If you're an unbeliever and this isn't lovely for you, I'm not your guy. I don't have any other way to explain it to you. It's lovely to me. It's lovely to the believers in the room. I'll tell you that.

I'll give you an application. If you're an unbeliever, cry out to God that He would make this lovely to you. Irresistible to you. Believers, don't let your faith become sterile, mechanical, transactional. Your faith can become very sterile, mechanical, transactional.

Even the things we do in this room can become so transactional. This is about the love of God. God's affectionate heart towards you that moved Him to send His Son to the cross so that you could have life and enjoy Him. Now, think of that in comparison to a sterile, mechanical, transactional faith. It's so sad when you think about it.

Stand in awe of the love of God for the ungodly who are powerless. If you're in Christ, that described you! Ungodly and totally powerless to do anything about it. God wasn't content to let your story end there. So, He moved in your life out of His loving compassion and showed you these things.

When Paul thinks of these things, He can't be stoic. A stoic is an emotionless person. Paul can't speak of these things stoically. Emotionless. He rejoices in God.

Let me close with 1 John 4, 9 and 10. 1 John 4, 9 and 10. In this the love of God was manifested toward us. God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, to stand between us and God's fury against our rebellion, and to drink it all down and leave none for us.

God, who is sufficient for these things? Who is sufficient to preach these things? They are so lovely. No preacher ever feels like he can do them justice. Your Spirit can beautify your Word in our hearts.

And I pray that the Holy Spirit right now would be moving so fully and freely in the hearts of every believer and on every unbeliever to make these things lovely, irresistible in our eyes. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.